“God wants to revolutionize our thinking about parenting…Often our parenting and disciplining is more or less about ‘behavior modification.’ But, God has a heart-based approach for working with people.  That truth changes many of the strategies and approaches parents use with their kids.  He is interested in hearts because that is where real and lasting change takes place.  In fact, when you direct your energies toward your child’s heart, amazing things will happen!”

This quote, from Parenting is Heartwork, definitely piqued my interest.  Over the years I have been puzzled by trying to understand what it actually means to “have your child’s heart.”   My mom’s friend shared about an incident that happened with her son after which she said, “Then I knew I had his heart.”

And, I’m thinkin’, “WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!”

How do I “have my child’s heart?”

What IS the heart?

How do we as parents accomplish that?

In what ways are we reaching our childrens’ hearts?

How can I do better?

How can we move from behavior modification, to heart change?

According to the authors, the heart is…

• where we fight internal battles as we try to make sense of life.
• the place of commitments and determination
• where we feel close to others
• where we experience emotions
• where temptations and desires develop
• where guilt and conviction of sin occurs
• the place that fills with our passion
• where we choose values to hold and convictions to live by
• where we connect with God.

WOW!  What a list!  Tom and I have just started getting into this book and we are already impacted!  It was an excellent purchase which will have long lasting benefits!  We want to touch and reach the hearts of Kay, Abigail and Elizabeth, more than anything else!  We anxiously anticipate learning how to do that through this book!  I know our hearts will be changed as well.  Can’t wait!

(You can click on the link in this blog post to purchase your own copy of this book, which was highly recommended by a conference speaker we heard recently.  Since I am an Amazon Affiliate, I will receive a teeny percentage of the purchase price which is cool!)